Girl loses battle with leukemia

Up until the end, 12-year-old Moncerrat “Monce’” Bravo was upbeat, faithful and looking to the future.

Monce’ died of leukemia Tuesday. In her final weeks, the Costa Mesa girl enjoyed life and what the people around her had given her. On Aug. 16 the nonprofit Grants Wishes fulfilled one of her dreams — a shopping spree at South Coast Plaza — and the Pilot chronicled it.

Immediately after, she went to church — wearing her new clothes, of course.

Sure, she looked forward to the fancy new clothes, but what she really anticipated becoming a teenager.

“She was a very smart little girl,” family friend Ulisa Navarro said. “She was very upbeat and always happy.”

Speaking with family and friends, another word comes to mind as well: strong, in both faith and love for her friends and family.

A member of the community service-oriented Pathfinders, Monce’ spent an entire day roaming Disneyland with a large group of family and friends, all the while refusing a wheelchair.

In her last months, she spent much of her time in the hospital, where she made an impression on hospital staff — Navarro included — and her fellow young patients.

“She knew every doctor, every nurse, every medication,” Navarro said, adding Monce’ would even help new doctors or nurses out with patients she knew. “You met her and would just fall in love with her.”

“She always said what she felt,” said her aunt Rita Bravo in Spanish.

Bravo and the rest of Moncerrat’s family hoped to have “many more months” with Monce’.

“We all knew, but didn’t think it was going to be at this moment,” she said.

The viewing has been scheduled from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday at the Costa Mesa Spanish Seventh Day Adventist Church, 617 Hamilton St.

The family is asking for donations to help fund the funeral arrangements. For more information, call Rita Bravo at (714) 966-5387.